


The Great Escape

by dgsm11



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attack, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-03
Updated: 2012-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 12:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dgsm11/pseuds/dgsm11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Stiles hits rock bottom, Derek is there to catch him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Great Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Title and inspiration from [The Great Escape](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wl5-audkPY) by P!nk. Written for a Beacon Hills challenge. Beta by the awesome [Jamie](http://baldie-troll.livejournal.com/).

The acrid smell of panic. It’s the first thing that hits Derek. He shoves away unbidden memories because his mind needs to be on _Stiles_. He scales up the side of the house faster. He leaps through the window and frantically searches the bedroom for Stiles, but doesn’t see him. Derek curses under his breath and follows the scent to the bathroom. He takes a deep breath before opening the door, a flood of emotions filling his nostrils.

Derek tries the doorknob and its locked. He decides that explaining to the Sheriff why the door is broken is worth it and he shoulders the door open with all of his power. He’s not sure what he was expecting to see, but nothing could prepare him for what he finds. Stiles, pale, shaky, sweaty, sitting on the floor with his back against the tub. An unopened pack of razors sit next to him. He barely flinches when Derek bursts in. He looks up at Derek with empty eyes, which just kills Derek. He faced those eyes for years, constantly staring him down every time he glanced into a mirror.

“Stiles,” Derek says gently, approaching Stiles like someone would approach an injured animal. _And isn’t that what Stiles is right now? Injured, broken, shredded to pieces by his emotions?_

“Scott sent you, didn’t he,” Stiles asks monotonously. “Knew he couldn’t keep his mouth shut even when I asked him to.”

“You expect him to not tell anyone when you’re telling him goodbye in a text,” Derek bellows.

Stiles closes his eyes and shudders out a deep breath. Derek immediately regrets yelling at him, remembering the times when Laura yelled at him to come out of his funk and it just sent him deeper underground.

“I’m sorry.” Derek kneels next to Stiles. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong. Let me fix it.” _Let me fix you,_ was left unsaid.

Stiles laughs humorlessly. “Everybody says that. They act like they can sprinkle their magical fairy dust on everything and it’s all okay again. It doesn’t work though because I still feel like shit.”

Derek sighs, frustrated, not sure how to reach Stiles. As low as Derek went, he never went this far. He dealt with his panic in other ways, more dangerous ways. Perhaps he had been in Stiles’ spot before, though not as obviously.

“Look, give me thirty minutes. Talk to me. Let me try. If it’s not enough...” Derek pauses, not believing he’s about to say this. “If it’s not enough, I’ll let you do what you need to.”

“Really,” Stiles asks, honestly surprised.

“Yeah,” Derek responds, settling more comfortably on the cold, tiled floor.

Stiles blinks a few times, trying to think of where to start. Instead of trying to find a beginning, he just begins his usual nonsensical babble. “I haven’t taken my Adderall in a week, you know. Like, I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t eat and I thought maybe, just maybe, it’s not me. Maybe it’s these medications and not me. But it’s gotten _worse_. I can’t eat because the panic bubbles up my throat and makes it impossible. I can’t sleep because it feels like every time I close my eyes, the darkness surrounds me, seizes me, holds me in its clutches and I can’t escape. I never understood the fear of the dark until now. Because I can just sit there, hyperventilating, freaking out, sobbing, and nobody knows. I can scream and no one will hear.

“Dad’s never here anymore either. At least not when I’m around. He’s picking up every extra shift he can to make up for the money I made him lose. I got him fired and now he has to work himself every hour of every day to make it up. Because I’m amazing at screwing people’s lives up. If it wasn’t for me, Scott wouldn’t be a werewolf. He would have met Allison and they would have been high school sweethearts and gotten married right out of high school and popped out two and a half kids. But they didn’t, because of me. Because I dragged Scott out there that night. People have _died_ because of me.”

Stiles gasps, feeling panic seizing his core and overtaking his body. He feels the chills, his body shaking and he reaches his hand out, grasping onto the one thing available to him, which happens to be Derek’s knee. Derek’s warm flesh brings Stiles out of his panic filled haze. He turns and looks Derek in the eye.

“And then you come along, Derek. You come and find me instead of Scott. You act like you actually care. You’ll let me do this to myself. But I don’t know why. Why are you doing this for me, Derek?”

Derek looks down at the sweaty hand on his knee and places his own on top of it. “Because I was you. I’ve been there. Don’t you think I suffered through this myself when my whole family burned to death? But you can’t keep running, Stiles. You’ve got to stop and live in the future. Realize that what’s been done is done and _you can’t change it_.”

“How,” Stiles desperately asks Derek.

“Let it go,” Derek says forcefully. “Stop holding everything in. Just let it go.” He sees the hesitation in Stiles’ face. “Let it go. I’m here.”

And with those two words, the floodgates open and Stiles finds himself clinging to the heavy leather of Derek’s jacket. His body is wracked with sobs and all he can do is bury himself closer to Derek and breathe in his musky scent. He doesn’t know why, but Derek feels safe to him. Like Derek could actually heal him, duct tape all his broken parts back together.

Derek once again has to reel in his own emotions and focuses on running a comforting hand along Stiles’ back. “It’s okay, Stiles. I’ve got you. We’ll get through this together.”


End file.
